New device promises noiseless dental drill

The sound of the dental drill is known to be the prime cause of anxiety about dental treatmentt.

Developed by experts at King's College London, Brunel University and London South Bank University, the prototype works in a similar way to noise-cancelling headphones but it is designed to deal with the very high pitch of the dental drill.

The patients can hear the dentist and other members of the dental team speaking to them but other unwanted sounds are filtered out by the device, according to a King's College statement.

The device was initially the brainchild of Brian Millar at King's College London's Dental Institute who was inspired by carmaker Lotus' efforts to develop a system that removed unpleasant road noise.

With over a decade of collaboration with engineering researchers at Brunel and South Bank Universities, a prototype has been designed, built and successfully evaluated.

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